Tang Bohu had just sent Minister Andre away when Liu Ping, the governor of Wudu, Japan, came to visit him.
"Master Tang!"
There is almost no difference between Liu Ping's attire and that of the people of the Ming Dynasty. The moon-shaped headband that was popular among the Japanese gentry has now disappeared, and even his clothing changes closely with the trends of the Ming Dynasty.
Liu Ping was wearing the most popular clothes of the Ming Dynasty, and on his hands was a precious watch that was unparalleled by the country's scholars. He also wore a jade pendant from Burma on his waist like the scholars of the Ming Dynasty. His words and deeds were no different from those of the Ming Dynasty people.
When he saluted Tang Bohu, he did so in accordance with the etiquette of the Ming Dynasty officialdom. They had learned all aspects of it.
"Master Liu~"
Tang Bohu returned the greeting with a smile, and the two parties sat down separately.
Like Andre, Liu Ping also brought several valuable gifts, but Tang Bohu didn't accept them either.
Although Tang Bohu's background was not very good, his father was just a small owner of a small wine shop, but Tang Bohu's ancestors were very great.
In the Qianliang period, Tang Bohu's ancestor was Tang Hui, the general of Lingjiang. During the Tang Dynasty, his ancestor Tang Jian followed Li Yuan in the army. In the Tang Dynasty, he was awarded the title of "Gong of Ju". It can be said that it is a truly prominent family. Even in the Ming Dynasty,
, my ancestor was also a general who died gloriously in the Tumubao Incident.
Tang Bohu has always been proud of his ancestors. He has also been greatly influenced and has high aspirations. Now he has finally become a fourth-rank official. He will never accept bribes for fear of tarnishing the reputation of his ancestors.
And now even if they don't accept gifts, officials in the Ming Dynasty can still live a very good life.
Under Liu Jin's leadership, the salaries of officials in the Ming Dynasty also increased again and again.
From the beginning, eating was a problem. Salaries were given in the form of paper-like treasure notes, and then in kind, like grain and cloth. Gradually, treasure notes were abolished and no longer used to pay officials' salaries.
Then they slowly removed all the physical payments and converted them all into cash, and paid out salaries and subsidies on a monthly basis, and they also increased one after another...
Now, the annual income of fourth-grade officials has exceeded 700 taels of silver, which is a very considerable income. You must know that the annual income of ordinary people is only 67 taels of silver per year.
The income of fourth-grade officials is ten times that of ordinary people. This is already an extremely high income. If converted into purchasing power, the income will be even more impressive.
You must know that the price of grain in the Ming Dynasty was only a few cents per catty, and the price of meat was also a few cents per catty. Even a house in the Beijing-Tianjin area cost more than two thousand taels of silver per set. In future generations, a fourth-grade house would cost only a few cents per catty.
Officials can afford to buy a house in the imperial capital after working for three years. This income is definitely a high income.
So there is no need to be greedy at all. In the past, everyone was greedy and everyone accepted gifts. It can be said that there was no way, because the salary was indeed too low, and it was a problem to support the whole family.
But now the treatment of officials in the Ming Dynasty is really good, and their income is really high. As long as they don't live a debauched life and live a normal life, it can be said to be more than enough.
Naturally, Tang Bohu would not collect these things.
"Governor Liu came here this time. I wonder what happened?"
Tang Bohu looked at Liu Ping in front of him. He had been here for a few days and had heard a lot about Liu Ping.
It is said that he is a descendant of the Han royal family, a descendant of Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty, who has been a nobleman in the Japanese country for generations, and now he has recognized his ancestors in the Ming Dynasty.
Although they are from the Japanese country, they have always considered themselves to be from the Ming Dynasty. The key is that other people from the Japanese country still buy their account, thinking that they are indeed the Ming Dynasty people. There is no way, who makes them really belong to Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty
Descendants all have genealogies and historical records.
"Master Tang, our Japanese country is a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Our Japanese country and the Ming Dynasty have always been one family."
"We, the Japanese country, finally got a foggy colony in Western Europe, but now, European countries are targeting us. Our colony is not strong and has been attacked repeatedly."
"That's why I came here to seek help from Master Tang. I hope that Master Tang can help purchase a batch of artillery from Miyun Arsenal to protect the Fog City Colony."
"At the same time, we also hope to purchase more ships from Daming. We are currently in very short supply of ships and the losses are relatively large."
"Of course we will not let Mr. Tang work in vain. We can sell one-fifth of the quota of slaves we plunder from Europe to Mr. Tang."
Liu Ping looked at Tang Bohu and said with a smile.
"Buy cannon and ships?"
When Tang Bohu heard this, he immediately said with confusion: "Given the relationship between our Ming Dynasty and your Japanese country, there shouldn't be any problem in purchasing cannons and ships, right?"
"Master Tang, what we want to buy is the Miyun Type 23 breech-loading cannon produced by Miyun Arsenal, which is currently used by your Ming army. The ship we want to buy is the latest steamship produced by Tianjin Shipbuilding.
"
"These two things are now prohibited from export and sale in Ming Dynasty."
"Master Tang, you have a good relationship with Mr. Liu. I wonder if you can help lobby a bit to lift this prohibition and sell us some of these two things."
"In addition, if Ming Dynasty's current telegrams can be sold to us, we are also willing to pay a high price to buy them."
Liu Ping whispered to Tang Bohu.
The reason why he wanted to purchase these two things was to facilitate plundering in Europe. Now the entire European coastline was being plundered by Japanese pirates.
Japanese plague is very serious!
These Japanese pirates were well-equipped, rigorously trained, and well-organized, and they often moved extremely fast, plundering every city, port, village, etc. in the coastal areas of Europe.
This also inspired various European countries to start a strong counterattack against Japanese pirates. France, England, Portugal, Denmark, the Holy Roman Empire, several Nordic countries, the Polish-Lithuanian Principality on the Baltic Sea, etc., now all hate Japanese pirates and can't wait to see them.
I will crush these Japanese pirates to their ashes.
Because these Japanese people are really cruel.
Often when a place was plundered, almost everything would be plundered, and all the people would be captured and sold as slaves to the people of the Ming Dynasty.
From the time the Japanese began to taste the sweetness, until now, in only about a year, the Japanese have plundered more than half a million slaves and huge wealth from Europe, and a large number of port cities have been looted.
The Japanese invasion has reached an extremely serious level.
The people of Japan have now tasted the sweetness. The slave trade is so profitable, and the money comes in so fast. If you catch a slave and change hands, you can sell it for 20 taels of silver. What else can make money faster than this?
In one year, the Japanese country obtained more than ten million taels of silver from the income from the slave trade alone. Coupled with other plundered wealth, it can be said to be a bumper harvest.
But it also greatly stimulated European countries and aroused their determination to fight against Japanese pirates.
Ma Dan.
Since ancient times, they have been pirates and robbers, and they are the only ones who plunder others. Now these Japanese people have robbed robbers, and their pirate ancestors have come to bear. How can they endure it?
Therefore, they also united with the other Japanese country, and the focus and core of it was to remove the Fog Colony in the south of England and the north of the English Channel.
This was the base camp and base area where the Japanese invaded Europe.
From time to time, some ships and fleets were organized to attack the Wudu Colony, but they all ended in failure. The Japanese stationed an elite army of 20,000 people in the Wudu Colony. Coupled with a large number of wanderers from the Japanese country, the Japanese were down and out.
Samurai, ordinary people who want to get rich, etc., the power of Fog City Colony is very strong.
Several attempts to destroy the Wudu Colony were unsuccessful, but they allowed the Japanese to start thinking of ways to strengthen their defenses in the Wudu Colony.
"Your Majesty the Governor, these things are not something that I, the little Governor of Hong Kong, can decide."
"Sorry, I just can't do it."
After listening to this, Tang Bohu also recalled the situation in Europe. In addition to the fierce war between Spain and France, the other biggest thing in Europe was the Japanese invasion.
Nowadays, the Japanese pirates in Europe have become serious enough that European countries need to unite to fight against them. There is really nothing we can do to deal with these Japanese pirates.
If the Japanese people get these three things from the Ming Dynasty, it is estimated that the whole of Europe will be disturbed by Japanese pirates.
Tang Bohu hated Japanese pirates extremely. In the past, the southeastern coastal areas of the Ming Dynasty were often invaded by Japanese pirates. The Suzhou Prefecture was almost attacked by Japanese invaders.
Don't even think about helping these Japanese pirates, there is no way.
Although judging from what Jiang Liang explained, it seems that he wants to support these Japanese people, because their plundering in Europe is good for the Ming Dynasty. Not only can they obtain slaves and earn a lot of profits, but they can also make heavy losses.
against the development of European countries.
Jiang Liang also specifically warned about this matter and continued to support the Japanese people.
However, Tang Bohu felt that supporting the Japanese people to do these unethical things seriously violated the ideals of scholars and must not allow bandits to cause trouble, so not only would he not support them, he even planned to cut off some of his original support.